Each year thousands of young children are killed or injured in automobile accidents. As a result, child safety seats are now mandatory within the United States for young children. In addition to standard child safety seats, where the child rests in the child safety seat, various other restraint systems for infants and children exist. While the age range of children required to use child safety seats varies by state, as a general rule, a child should be restrained in a child safety seat until they reach about 4′9″ in height and are between 8 and 12 years of age.
Child safety seats are typically positioned in one of two directions depending on the age and weight of the child sitting. As a general rule, the child safety seat is positioned facing the rear of the vehicle until the infant has reached at least 1 year of age and weighs at least 20 pounds. Once the child has reached 1 year of age and 20 pounds, the child safety seat is positioned facing the front of the vehicle.
The child safety seat is generally secured to the vehicle seat using existing adult safety restraints, such as lap and shoulder belts. It is essential to the performance of the safety seat that the adult restraints remain taut, securely holding the child safety seat in place. A significant problem exists, however, in that the combined weight of the child safety seat and child when continuously applied to the vehicle seat results in permanent damage thereto. Permanent compression damage, scratches, tears, and marring are the most common damages to vehicle seats caused by child safety seats. Further damage to the vehicle seat can occur when infants or children using the safety seat inadvertently soil the seats, for example, diaper leaks, vomiting, or accidental spilling of food or drinks.
In an attempt to resolve these problems, many parents resort to using seat coverings such as plastic sheets, blankets, and rubber mats between the vehicle seat and the child safety seat. These seat coverings generally achieve the primary objective of protecting vehicular seats, but possess certain deficiencies that detract from the overall utility.
Most significantly is the inability to protect the entirety of the vehicle seat. Specifically, plastic sheets, rubber mats, and blankets are essentially tailored to cover only the seat portion of the vehicle seat and provides some coverage when accommodating a rear-facing safety seat as it distributes weight on the seating portion of the vehicle seat. But, this arrangement offers no protection for the seat-back portion of the vehicle seat against the safety seat as it presses against the seat-back portion, which causes damage, or from objects projected onto it, such as food or drink. In addition, when the safety seat is repositioned to be forward facing, these coverings typically will not prevent the safety seat from contacting and damaging the exposed seat-back portion of the vehicle seat. Although multiple layers of plastic sheets, rubber mats, or padded blankets may theoretically be spread over the seats, such arrangement will be aesthetically unpleasing, not to mention awkward and difficult to maintain as they are not designed for such use.
There are also commercially available covers. One type is a full coverage mat that extends below the bottom and behind the back of the safety seat. Some are made with a single layer of non-slip material while others are made with dense padding with non-slip materials on the top and bottom of the mat. This design provides adequate vehicle seat protection when used with a child safety seat in the forward facing position, but it cannot be used with a child safety seat in the rear facing position because the upper portion of the back may fall on the child. While it may be possible to secure the upper portion of the mat to the vehicle headrest, this is not a viable option since it is recommended that infants be placed in the middle of the back seat, and most vehicles do not have a headrest in this location.
Another type of commercially available cover is an under seat design that only partially extends up the back of the vehicle seat. This type of cover provides adequate protection when the child safety seat is used in the rear facing position, as it has no upper portion to fall on the child. However, this type of cover offers no protection to the vehicle seat back when the child safety seat is used in the forward facing position or rear facing position.
Yet another type of commercially available is a multiple piece cover. The multiple piece cover utilizes a detachable upper portion so that the cover may be used for both rear and forward facing child safety seats. The upper portion is removed when used with a rear facing safety seat, and then re-attached for use with a forward facing safety seat. One problem with this design is that it offers no protection for the seat-back portion of the vehicle seat against the safety seat as it presses against the seat-back portion, which can cause damage, or against objects projected onto it, such as food or drink when the child safety seat is mounted in the rear-facing position. Another substantial problem with this design is that the consumer must keep track of the detached portion for about one year, until the child is old enough and weighs enough to use the safety seat in the forward facing position. This process is inconvenient and cumbersome, and the detached portion is often misplaced, lost, or forgotten during this time.
In view of the above-described shortcomings of vehicle seat coverings of the prior art, there exists a need in the art for a unitary vehicle seat cover that can be adjusted to optimally accommodate both rearward and forward facing child safety seats, the directions of which are critical at various stages of a child's growth. More specifically, there exists a need for a vehicle seat cover that provides a secure non-skid surface on which the child safety seat is positioned, as well as preventing the vehicle seat from becoming soiled, scratched, and permanently compressed irrespective of the direction the child safety seat is positioned.